Ultima Online's Culture of Cheating - Just Accept / Deal with It?

[spamspamspamspam]

Maybe I'm just a bit pissy now after getting caught twice in the past 24-hours by stealth bots checking spawns on my dead West Coast shard (including once at 2:30 am) but I am really fed up with the rampant cheating that goes on in UO. I know I've felt like this in the past, and the cheating is frankly why I don't play nearly as much as I used to, but I guess that I just want to vent, and ask the question,: "If UO has such a strong culture of cheating, and the developers won't (or can't) do anything about it, is it a matter of me just accepting it?"

Think of all the inconvenience that cheating causes in the game:

• EM Events: anyone that has attended an EM event on ANY shard sees just how many multiboxers are out there. And yes, I know the difference between multi-clienting and multi-boxing
• PvP: It's just flat out almost impossible to PvP unless you're running an (or a number of) illegal program(s). I know it's bad, but when I talk to players on ATL, I'm always surprised at how bad it actually is, and what the programs all do to give unfair advantages
• Stealth bots: I especially like when you call them out after the raid, and they just say: "Just out checking spawns". Now, I don't expect them to admit what they're doing, but don't insult people that you just screwed over by lying about how you found them

I assume that Mesanna and crew just can't stop the cheating at this point. I understand that they opened the door long ago to legal third-party programs, like Assist and Cartographer, so they can't go back now, but it's just frustrating that the ONLY defense against cheaters is other players. While I agree that players should report unattended stuff (likely we'll see a ton of in the next month or so once the new Treasures is up and running), multiboxing, and other abuses, it doesn't seem right that players are the game's only defense. When I pay my $13 per month per account, shouldn't I have the expectation that the development team is doing SOMETHING to make it an even playing field? Sure, Mesanna points out how many accounts were actioned upon in the past month in the very infrequent newsletters, but we all know that the only reason for those are because the players reported, not that game policing caught them.

I miss being able to do spawns and getting caught once in while by people actually checking spwans, but now it's automatic because of the bots. It takes away something that I enjoyed doing, but now is it a matter of just accepting that nothing will ever change for the better? What have you folks done?

And please, don't chime in if you're only going to lie ("Illegal third-party programs aren't out there"); please save your hypocrisy for some other post.

 

[Naitch]

i think i read somewhere about someone saying they wont action ( ban ) a paid account but will ban ( action) EJ accounts. EJ stands for Endless Cheating i mean Journey.

 

[Keven2002]

Unfortunately I think you are just going to have to accept it. There are certainly many people using cheats to play UO and some are blatant and nothing happens.

Part of the problem is that, from what I understand, the bots basically send an alarm/signal to a discord channel or something which is something we never had to deal with 20 years ago. Scripting / botting wasn't a thing back then but now it's rampant and the scripts/clients have gotten way better as time has progressed so nowadays there likely is no such thing as some red (or blue) stumbling upon your spawn, it's all calculated.

The only thing you can really hope for is that nobody is online when that alarm is sent. I wouldn't say it's all doom and gloom though because I feel like I've been able to solo Despise at random times on various shards without being raided.

 

[Corwyn]

Cheating has been a part of UO for years. It's never been dealt with in a consistent way. Over time, you just grow numb to it. UO isn't really even unique in this. Several games have cheating going on that is only marginally policed and corrected.

 

[MaryForUo]

Cheating has been a part of UO for years. It's never been dealt with in a consistent way....

and tons of money always end up in the pockets of the only protected players, yes "protected".
I dont care anymore and play and have fun with wath i have, so take care all!
if we start talking about this topic we will never end, even if we all know how things are, so, HAVE FUN

 

[The Black Smith]

As far as champs go and spawn bots.
Why does it matter if a person spots you or a bot?
the bot won’t attack you, it just gives information.
bit silly to demand a player to run laps around lost lands all day.

you’re actually better off doing champs at peak time rather than quiet time.
reason being, at peak times the guilds with the bots are busy fighting each other at yew, and won’t end guild wars just for a champ raid. if you do get raided at peak time, be sure to announce it in general chat.
The pvpers will be busy fighting each other and you can normally be free to kill the boss while this is happening.

 

[The Black Smith]

Just out of interest
What do you think the unfair advantages are that third party programs give?

Most of the players that use them, are only using them because broadsword haven’t fixed any bugs and the third party programs have fixed a lot of bugs that make the game unplayable for pvp.
people who don’t pvp probably won’t understand because they don’t experience the bugs where they play - in trammel.

imagine you’re running an event with your guild of 10 people. And because of a bug your event was ruined and prevented all 10 people from playing because one of your group had a bug. Wouldn’t you too encourage that person to download a fix for the bug so everyone else on the team can play the event?

people in trammel get to play relatively bug free for $13 a month. Do you think fel players are paying less subscription?
why do they have to source their own bug fixes when trammel players get it included in their sub?
There’s very few bugs in trammel that would get you killed and all your stuff looted 10 times an hour, compared to all the ones fel players would suffer if they didn’t download fixes.

 

[Coco_Zamis_DF]

Most of the players that use them, are only using them because broadsword haven’t fixed any bugs

Sure Sure. Sorry this is a very lame excuse.

 

[The Black Smith]

okay so what do you think the majority of players are using third party clients for then?

For example, in classic client, in trammel when you’re moving and hit a tree and stop for half a second, nothing happens. Who cares?
in guild wars, if you stop for half a second on a tree while 5 people are chasing you, you would be dead, and that would cause your friends to be dead too because they’re a man down because one chump in the guild is using a defected client.

on EC you can’t stop on a tree, nobody likes EC graphics so they have to download fix for CC.

that’s just one of a dozen issues.

The bugs in classic client are so bad that it ruins the game for all their team mates (especially when it attacks their own team mate with attack nearest hostile)

I would be more likely to report a player for using classic client as it’s a form of physical harassment - attacking your own guild mate (classic client bug with attack nearest hostile). And generally ruining enjoyment of all other players.

 

[Coco_Zamis_DF]

if you stop for half a second on a tree while 5 people are chasing you,

If the 5 people are using the same so called buggy Client, the chance that they stop at a tree is the same For each.
If I see gray, who cares. If your guild require that you have to choose an illegal option or leave, I would leave.
If BS will say choose whatever Client you want, I may choose other than cc and assist for playing.

I would say this is a General problem. Everybody wants to be the big Dude (in general chat). While someone stays I am a bad pvp'ler I would say "yes, but who cares". Some people think uo is only about pvp but that's not true.

It's about the people, about trust and maybe the virtues.

And I don't like cheater or 23x7 farming.

 

[The Black Smith]

If everyone was using bugged 2d client, then if someone uses EC, they would win every fight.
it would be more unfair
Third party client just means that people can play same as EC but with CC graphics.

shouldn’t be penalised for liking classic graphics over the EC

but yes people who farm afk should be banned.

 

[GarthGrey]

7 of my EJ accounts were all banned (4 of which were at one time paid accounts), funny thing was I was on the EC . My paid accounts were not actioned, just the EJs. And before you ask, the amount of accounts I was using was to get full party drops for orc ship parts, hardly hurting anyone and my crew members weren't performing any actions at all, other than standing on my ship being members of the party. So innocent people in fact are getting banned for not breaking any rules. I should be allowed to multi client as much as my pc can handle, which I was doing.

 

[The Black Smith]

uo.com says
Ultima Online: Endless Journey is a way for players to experience the core features of Ultima Online without a paid subscription


what it does not say is.

Ultima Online: Endless Journey is a way for subscription players to multiply their drops.

I'd have banned your main.

 

[Lord Frodo]

uo.com says
Ultima Online: Endless Journey is a way for players to experience the core features of Ultima Online without a paid subscription


what it does not say is.

Ultima Online: Endless Journey is a way for subscription players to multiply their drops.

I'd have banned your main.

Now this is priceless from the man that cheats every day.

 

[Anon McDougle]

Now this is priceless from the man that cheats every day.

Come now Merv the last honest pvper

 

[The Black Smith]

The notion that you should force everyone to play with bugs to be balanced is ridiculous.

They seem to have fixed the poofing bonded pets bug now. But let us say that your fully scrolled bonded pets kept going poof once a month. The full repro bug for this was reported and no action taken. But let us say the pets didn't go poof on third party client as they fixed it client side.

You would berate tamers for downloading the third party client to stop their pets going poof?

It's no different.

For a paid product, a quality assurance standard should exist.

 

[Pawain]

The notion that you should force everyone to play with bugs to be balanced is ridiculous.

They seem to have fixed the poofing bonded pets bug now. But let us say that your fully scrolled bonded pets kept going poof once a month. The full repro bug for this was reported and no action taken. But let us say the pets didn't go poof on third party client as they fixed it client side.

You would berate tamers for downloading the third party client to stop their pets going poof?

It's no different.

For a paid product, a quality assurance standard should exist.

The difference is, you said if they would add an icon for nerve strike, you would go back to the official client. Which they have, so now you are finding another excuse. Accept the fact that you have started cheating and will not stop. You will get no sympathy here for choosing to cheat. Quit justifying your cheating.

Purposely running into a wall over and over at your pity party is nowhere near a pet going poof.

Maybe go around after the first attempt.

 

[Anon McDougle]

The difference is, you said if they would add an icon for nerve strike, you would go back to the official client. Which they have, so now you are finding another excuse. Accept the fact that you have started cheating and will not stop. You will get no sympathy here for choosing to cheat. Quit justifying your cheating.

Purposely running into a wall over and over at your pity party is nowhere near a pet going poof.

Maybe go around after the first attempt.

Don't call him a cheat until you Start loading cannon balls

 

[The Black Smith]

I personally don't use third party client, never have.

But you can't expect everyone else to put up with all those bugs. They are not going to switch from something that works, to something that doesn't work.

Why is someone going to go from playing 250 FPS to 13? doesn't sound like a good trade

 

[The Black Smith]

The difference is, you said if they would add an icon for nerve strike, you would go back to the official client.

you're talking to me? show me this please

 

[Pawain]

Don't call him a cheat until you Start loading cannon balls

I do, I take them from ships, even posted a picture of them that you saw. So, stop trolling,
And if someone is playing with the game mechanics and the official server, they are cheating? Grow up!

you're talking to me? show me this please

We all know you are Mervyn stop being naive.

 

[Merlin]

Warning to all.... keep this thread productive or it will get locked. This won't be allowed to be turned into a personal attack thread.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I personally don't use third party client, never have.

But you can't expect everyone else to put up with all those bugs. They are not going to switch from something that works, to something that doesn't work.

Why is someone going to go from playing 250 FPS to 13? doesn't sound like a good trade

LMMFAO YOU LIER

 

[The Black Smith]

I would rather have one pet go poof per month, than die cos get rubber banded on wall of stone all day

 

[HugsNKisses]

I’ve just learned to accept it with the belief that the amount of PvPers using programs (I’d estimate somewhere between 90-95% of them) and the amount of accounts the EM multi box crowd pay for is most likely a big portion of what’s paying the bills to keep the game running.

Loved PvP but don’t care to use said programs and don’t want to give PvPers the satisfaction of killing me with them. Although I’m not going to say I was ever great at PvP to begin with, average at best but it was fun.

EM events have a guaranteed increase drop or something and you can still enjoy with all the multi boxing.

If they got rid of ghost cams I’d probably try to spawn again, if they brought back factions or a faction specific shard I’d probably do that again.

Until then I still enjoy the occasional logging in for the roof here and there while most of my game time is now spent playing other games.

Low expectations for New Legacy but plan to try that out with the hops of being surprised.

 

[The Black Smith]

If they got rid of ghost cams I’d probably try to spawn again

Can do terra sanctum spawn, not cammed.

 

[Tjalle]

Never accept cheating in a MMO game.
Voice your concerns to the devs at every given opportunity. Page on suspected cheaters. Discuss it on UO forums.
One part of the problem are the players who just ignore/accept it just because "it doesn´t affect me". Well, in one way or another it does.
If every player who didn´t cheat was vocal about it, the devs would be more pressured to do more about it.

 

[The Black Smith]

I'm all for reporting cheaters.
is downloading bug fixes from a third party cheating though? not something i would report.

 

[Pawain]

I'm all for reporting cheaters.
is downloading bug fixes from a third party cheating though? not something i would report.

The problem is they are not bug fixes. They are cheats that the developers never intended as part of the game. But you think should be part of the game. What you and they are doing is cheating. Accept it.

 

[The Black Smith]

so what is the report going to look like?

Report - physical harrassment...

Hi, player x my guild mate no longer seems to attack me with attack nearest hostile (which was really annoying before) I suspect she has fixed some bugs on her client, please action her so she can continue erroneosly attacking me and ruining my gameplay thanks.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I'm all for reporting cheaters.
is downloading bug fixes from a third party cheating though? not something i would report.

Then report yourself. Ban all accounts and permanently wipe them. Ask admins to wipe all forums accounts.

 

[The Black Smith]

I already told you, i don't use any cheats, never have.

But i'm not going to report other people for installing fixes that allow them to play.

 

[The Black Smith]

I mean think about it, if every single PvPer used the official client.
Mesanna would be receiving 1000+ emails a day demanding to fix nearest hostile bug and wall of stone etc.
Their email client wouldn't be able to cope.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I already told you, i don't use any cheats, never have.

But i'm not going to report other people for installing fixes that allow them to play.

Sure Merv sorry Yoshi sorry Covfefe

 

[Anon McDougle]

The problem is they are not bug fixes. They are cheats that the developers never intended as part of the game. But you think should be part of the game. What you and they are doing is cheating. Accept it.

Yeah like all those non cannonball users

 

[Victim of Siege]

Sure Merv sorry Yoshi sorry Covfefe

I heard he's Poops too.

 

[Merlin]

We are pretty far off topic here. Going to let this one fall to the bottom.